Vance Spars With The View's Anti-Trump Hosts

JD Vance picked a notably unsympathetic stop on his book tour Tuesday, sitting down with the mostly anti-Trump hosts of ABC's The View as he promotes his new memoir and eyes a 2028 presidential run, CNN reports. The vice president fielded questions on everything from Jeffrey Epstein to inflation and race, largely defending the Trump administration while sidestepping some of the sharpest critiques. The New York Times reports Vance knew he was in enemy territory and kept his behavior "warm and self-deprecating," and while the sit-down was "awkward" at times, it ended with the hosts gifting him a View onesie for the baby he's expecting next month. But Rolling Stone's take is that the View hosts "did a better job grilling ... Vance than most actual journalists."

Vance described himself as "kind of a conspiracy theorist on the Epstein stuff," calling for "full transparency" about the late financier and acknowledging that Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles has indeed privately labeled him a conspiracy theorist on Epstein, as was recently reported. He downplayed President Trump's ties to Epstein and overstated Trump's role in Epstein's downfall, and also tried to reinterpret Trump's recent controversial "I love the inflation" remark—prompting Joy Behar to ask if he was the president's "interpreter." Pressed by Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin on policies they said have harmed people of color, Vance insisted "everybody is welcome in our political coalition" but did not directly address specific rollbacks. The appearance came as Vance's book, Communion, debuted at No. 1 among Amazon's new releases.